


Youkai

by Idonquixote



Category: Kuroshitsuji | Black Butler
Genre: Character Study, M/M, Tanakabastian - Freeform, Tanakabastian Takeover, Tanakabastian Takeover 2k15, kind of, the only ship that matters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-15
Updated: 2015-06-15
Packaged: 2018-04-03 15:14:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,262
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4105531
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Idonquixote/pseuds/Idonquixote
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tanaka once loved a demon. He would do so again.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote some short drabbles for an underrated couple... Tanakabastian. Yes, you read that right.

He remembered a rain of pink beyond his backyard. When Tanaka was a boy, he would sit on the wooden porchstep and watch the cherry blossoms scatter in the wind. He would wander deeper in the woods sometimes, chasing those blossoms, trying to intoxicate himself on their blessed scent. He used to see  _him_.  
  
He was the most beautiful thing Tanaka had ever gazed upon, lithe, pale, a head of long white locks flowing in a way that conjured up images of a waterfall. He always looked as if he was half-asleep, meeting the boy's stares with dark narrow eyes, a sort of ethereal smile caught on bloodless sculpted lips. Sharp nails would catch on the raining petals and he would smile at Tanaka, in a way that read, "child, come."  
  
Tanaka would sit by the creature's side as he played his reedy flute. What are you? he once asked. And the creature had simply said, and Tanaka had already known... _youkai_.  
  
Youkai, a creature of old, the last memory of a time long past, of undisturbed woods and warriors untoppled. He fascinated the boy; in some ways, young Tanaka had obsessed over him. He would lie awake on his futon, the summer wind blowing in from bamboo windows as he listened for the youkai's song. He spent the days painting, wasting parchment stolen from his mother. And one of those scrolls, he hid under a floorboard.

He would have traded his father's sword for a good flute. But Tanaka had some restraint and so, he approached the youkai timidly one day and asked, how do play? The creature would hold him in his arms and laugh when the boy made mistakes. It was a soft, windy laugh, as gentle as the breeze itself. Tanaka learned to play eventually- his notes were nowhere as beautiful as the youkai's, but it was a song. The boy would have to play it alone.

The creature smelled like cherry blossoms. And like those petals, he disappeared with the wilting trees.

Come rain, come snow, summer and spring, Tanaka would wait by the porch with his crude flute. The youkai never returned. The boy did not think about why- in what little time they had, the creature had taught him that there were things humans could not fathom. And with tears in his eyes, Tanaka let his painting waste under the floorboard. When his childhood home perished with age and fire, no scroll was spared. By then, he was too far away to remember.

His eyes dried soon. He slept at night. 

Tanaka grew older and with each year, the youkai's memory faded a bit in passing. Until he began to remember it as nothing more than a child's imagination. He was aged with grey when he saw one of them again. The moment Sebastian Michaelis stepped into his line of vision, Tanaka knew something was off.  
  
Like that creature from so long ago, Sebastian was beautiful, old, a sense of unearthly charm painted over his pale features. The curve of his red lips, the fire in his eyes, the shining luster of his ebony hair- he was no youkai, rather a thing out of Western lore. _Demon_.  
  
Perhaps it was a matter of time, but something was strange about the demon. He did not cast off that sense of maturity the youkai from his boyhood did. The demon was cruder, darker, younger. He was not a thing Tanaka needed- like he needed his beloved youkai- but rather a creature that needed Tanaka. No, in many ways, the demon was fresh in Tanaka's eyes, strangely innocent, childish in his ways, an enigma that rekindled more than old memories.  
  
Tanaka had loved a demon once. And now he would love a demon once more.   
  
Sebastian Michaelis was a demon who had never been loved. And now he was.


	2. Chapter 2

"So the little witch was just a girl after all?" Tanaka said in his chippy tone, taking another sip of green tea. Sitting beside him, Sebastian chuckled in response- yes, only Tanaka would be able to take the news so casually. Always Tanaka.

"Humans are interesting," the demon heard himself say.

"If I weren't human, I might agree," the steward responded, followed by a short 'ho ho ho.'

Sebastian stiffened involuntarily. He had his suspicions that Tanaka may have _unconventional_ ideas about his nature, but it was never a prudent move to approach the topic any further. And still, he shifted closer. Because he really was a greedy, eager demon.

"And why would you say that?"

"For starters, we humans have a habit of labeling whatever it is we don't understand. An old man like me has seen enough labels come and go to know that no matter the language, they mean nothing in life."

"That is, if the life ends of course." Sebastian watched the drops of tea cling to Tanaka's mustache as he spoke. 

"Have you heard of the youkai?"

"I believe so." _Though I've only ever met one. Hardly long enough to gain much knowledge._

"I tried explaining the concept to the Master once. It took him a while to grasp." Here, the old man laughed. "'Why should an oriental demon be any better than a western devil?' he asked me. It was a good question."

That suspicious feeling returned- Sebastian pretended to look away in contemplation. Was the old human teasing him here? Or was he being the fool? Ah, always Tanaka.

"There are evil youkai, as sadistic and malicious as they come- spirits that feed on blood and monsters that steal children." Tanaka cast a knowing eye on him. "I take it this is the part of the story you're most interested in, Sebastian?" "Wh-" "No need to be ashamed, ho ho ho- the Master was the same way!"

The steward went on as Sebastian leaned in to dab away the liquid on his mustache. "But there are others, calm sad things that I always felt... simply didn't belong. No fault of theirs, but rather ours. Some youkai are held in the same esteem as gods."

"That I did not know."

"There are many things I doubt you know." 

That caught the demon by surprise. Tanaka may have admonished him in the past, but nothing near as rude. 

"Their nature is only different than ours." But the old man continued to talk about his youkai, a gleam of understanding in his eyes. "And there is a world of difference between odd and evil. I suppose that's why this silly old man could never answer the Master's question. Because a youkai is no better than a demon but a demon is no worse than a youkai."

The words spilled out before Sebastian could temper the tone. "But a demon is cruel and malicious. They live to snare prey and suffering. All demons are the same in passing. They're horrible, despicable things." _Nothing like your precious youkai._

But Tanaka only laughed in response. And when he spoke again, he stared directly at the butler. "But are they really? Or are they told that? Take away those words and we have nothing left but wandering creatures damned to eternities of biblical hell. Can you with one hundred percent conviction tell me a demon is incapable of holding a conversation? Or listening?"

Tanaka's hand came to rest on Sebastian's shoulder. His head came closer, silver strands brushing the demon's face. "Believe what you will, but there is one demon I have no reason to regret loving."

For the first time in perhaps an eternity, Sebastian Michaelis was speechless.


End file.
